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20147
February 4th, 2009 18:00
BIOS won't boot.
I have a 1 1/2 year old inspiron 1420 laptop, which now won't boot the bios. The power comes on, and the display lights up, but won't show anything. I tried the Diagnostics (holding Fn while turning on); and it won't show anything for a few seconds, when it beeps a few times, then shows several solid-color screens.
Does anybody know what causes this and whether I can fix it?
Some more details:
The problem began after my graphics driver failed and then recovered when switching from the screensaver. About a half hour later, the screen froze, then changed to a solid green with some random blue pixels sprinkled over it. Restarting worked, and I updated my graphics driver. However, several minutes later, the screen froze and blurred a bit, then the computer powered down all by itself. I boot into Ubuntu, since I have a dual boot, but a few minutes after that the computer froze again. Now it won't even boot the BIOS.
Thanks for any help you can give.
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Small_Ajax
4 Posts
0
February 4th, 2009 18:00
I tried connecting the laptop to a friend's external monitor, but the external didn't get any signal. I'll try taking out the RAM next. What do I do if it is the RAM?
Small_Ajax
4 Posts
0
February 4th, 2009 18:00
Thanks for the quick, helpful, post, by the way.
LA1
107 Posts
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February 4th, 2009 18:00
have you tried connecting an external monitor to the external VGA port on your notebook. Then turn on your notebook if you see the bios screen and the boot progress it is your LCD that is bad.... if still nothing it could mean your mainboard is bad or possibly the RAM, with the power off and the battery removed and the power brick unplugged, try removing the ram, put on stick at a time back trying both slots , then try only the other stick of ram both slots.
LA1
107 Posts
0
February 4th, 2009 19:00
What do I do if it is the RAM?
...buy new ram??:emotion-42: , by the way do the "lock " lights flash,,,, they are the num lock cap lock ..etc. I kind of think it might be the mainboard.
Small_Ajax
4 Posts
0
February 4th, 2009 21:00
The problem doesn't seem to be the RAM. At least, I tried booting with each RAM stick, then swapped them, and there wasn't any change on boot.
Do you know if there's any way to check definitively if the motherboard is or isn't the problem?
The lock lights don't flash when I push just the power button, but they do flash for the fn + power (Dell Diagnostics). I think, though, that they don't do any of the coded flashing that would give me an error message.
sucl_1
52 Posts
0
February 5th, 2009 00:00
Hi, If u r still facing problem, U should contact with dell for the solution because if u put any third party part in ur system it may be more harmful for ur system. As u have only one and half year old laptop so u will be in warrenty period.